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A few years ago, several legal writing teachers began advocating writing across the curriculum--teaching writing in all classes. I think that a similar thing needs to be done with legal ethics. It is not enough to teach professionalism and ethics in just one class; we need to reinforce it in all classes.

This idea was first suggested by Deborah Rhode in the late 1980s. Her book "Ethics by the Pervasive Method," was designed to support teaching ethics across the curriculum. I think it is marvelous that these days many teachers address ethics issues in their courses, all of them. Teaching ethics across the curriculum would not, however, be an adequate substitute for the basic professional responsibility course, for the same reasons we would not teach contracts or writing across the curriculum in place of the focused contracts or writing course.

Posted by: Jim Moliterno | Apr 25, 2011 5:08:03 AM

I can't imagine NOT teaching ethics and professional responsibility in every substantive class. There are so many opportunities to introduce ethical issues: representation of multiple clients, confidentiality issues, etc. etc.